Christ Diplomat (Exhortations)

WHY GOD INTERVENES TEXT: Judges 6:17 And he said unto him, If now I have found grace in thy sight, then shew me a sign that thou talkest with me. MESSAGE Our natural instinct is to think that if we can live holy enough; pray hard enough; or DO one thing or the other enough, then we may earn God's intervention or help. But here is Gideon. He was not praying when God showed up; he was threshed wheat by the winepress! Israel and for that matter the house hold of Gideon was not in good shape as far as holiness is concerned. Verse 25 shows us that long after God had shown Israel their sins, the people of Israel and for that matter the house of Gideon still had and worshiped Baal. In fact, Gideon's family seemed to be a custodian of that idol. The were so committed to this dumb god of theirs that they were ready to kill Gideon when he eventually broke down the one in their home. Yet in the middle of all these things, God still showed up and intervened in their affairs. That de...

TEXT : Isaiah 11:2, Psalm 111:10, 2Cor 7:1 Isaiah 11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; Psalm 111:10 The fear of the LORD is the beginning of wisdom: a good understanding have all they that do his commandments: his praise endureth for ever.  2Cor 7:1 Having therefore these promises, dearly beloved, let us cleanse ourselves from all filthiness of the flesh and spirit, perfecting holiness in the fear of God. MESSAGE The fear of the Lord actually means reverence for the Lord. This is the type of reverence a child should have for his father. This reverence is a manifestation of love that makes us value our fathers so much so that we obey him at all times, whether it be convenient or not. Now that is exactly what the Spirit of the fear of the Lord does in us. This is different from a morbid fear or dread " For God hath not g...

THE SPIRIT OF KNOWLEDGE TEXT: Isaiah 11:2&3 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD 2Pet 1:3  I can pray this because his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness through the rich knowledge of the one who called us by his own glory and excellence. (New English Translation) MESSAGE The Christian life is the only life that is worth living because we have it made. We don't struggle to live a holy life which is pleasing unto God. We don't struggle to make ends meet either, becuase God, by "... his divine power has bestowed on us everything necessary for life and godliness... " (2Pet 1:3) That is why it is a life of rest. We are not struggling on our own strength, we are drawing from what God has already made available to us. Holiness is our nature. Its an integral part of us woven into the very ...

THE SPIRIT OF MIGHT TEXT: Isaiah 11:2&3 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3  And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears MESSAGE Once you stand for the Lord, you are bound to face adversities. They can either be subtle or direct. While the subtle ones come like attraction (lust of the eyes, lust of the flesh and pride of life) to lure us from the way of righteousness, the direct ones come as persecution to scare us from the way of righteousness. The whole idea is to make you draw back, knowing that God says,  " if any man drawback, my soul shall have no pleasure in him " (Heb 10:38). We are told that ".. .all that will live godly in Christ Jesus shall suffer persecution ." (2Tim 3:12). Go...

THE SPIRIT OF COUNSEL TEXT: Isaiah 11:2&3 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; 3  And shall make him of quick understanding in the fear of the LORD: and he shall not judge after the sight of his eyes, neither reprove after the hearing of his ears MESSAGE God wants you to have answers to every question of life. He doesn't want you groping in the dark. Challenges are the spices of life, and they do come. But when they do, they should not swallow you up. The Lord will make a way where there seems to be no way. This He does by the operation of the Spirit of Counsel. He is the one that counseled Moses on the way out when the only water available for the Israelite was bitter. He shew him a tree which when thrown into the water made it sweet (Exodus 15:23-25). His counsel may not be conventional, but they always work wonders. David nev...

The Spirit Of Understanding TEXT: ISAIAH 11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; MESSAGE Yesterday we talked about the Spirit of wisdom who gives us revelation that empowers us to be and do what God says. Revelation is vehicle for the transmission of God's offer, but Understanding is key to receiving it. Many people sat under the teaching of our Lord Jesus and He taught them with an amazing wisdom but they could just not understand what He was teaching. His disciples were dejected after the death of Jesus because they did not understand the plan of redemption which includes the fact that Jesus will resurrect. Meanwhile, Jesus has been teaching them all these while. They only eventuslly understood when He "... opened he their understanding, that they might understand the scriptures" (Luk 24:45). He did this when He "... breat...

THE SPIRIT OF WISDOM TEXT: ISAIAH 11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD MESSAGE Many children of God try to force themselves to develops some nice character or live up to the expectation of God. They want to live as God would want them to. But they find out that they are just powerless about it! They make choices that they eventually find out to be wrong and so they find themselves in the wrong place, at the wrong time or doing the wrong thing--from God's perspective that is. Hard as they try, they notice that living a godly life seems absolutely beyond their reach. It should not be so. The life of a christian is not a life of struggle. You are called to rest. The Holy Spirit manifesting as the Spirit of wisdom gives us the revelation of God (Ephesians 3:17). He gives us insight into the nature, character and plan or will of God. Whatever ...

Text: Isaiah 11:2 And the spirit of the LORD shall rest upon him, the spirit of wisdom and understanding, the spirit of counsel and might, the spirit of knowledge and of the fear of the LORD; MESSAGE If you ever want to make a lasting impact in life. If you want to rise above circumstances and control them, if you want to fulfill your destiny, and be not just what you want to be, but that unbelieveable thing that the Lord has prepared for you, you need to have the fullness of the Holy Spirit. We are sent to do the same work that God sent Jesus to do Jesus says as my  Father  hath sent me, even so send I you (John 20:21) In fact He said: " Verily, verily, I say unto you, He that believeth on me, the works that I do shall he do also; and greater works than these shall he do; because I go unto my Father ". (John 14:12) Simply put, the task is the task or destroying the works of the devil wherever it is found: Whether in your  life, family, society, nat...

SPEAKING THE WORD OF GOD TEXT John 3:34 For he whom God hath sent speaketh the words of God: for God giveth not the Spirit by measure unto him. MESSAGE After the devotion of yesterday, you may ask, How can I get God to speak His word into my life? I told you yesterday that you don't have to wait. There's someone with the mandate to speak God's with the full power The bible says He that is sent of God speaketh the Words of God. So there is one that can speak that word and it will have the same effect as God speaking.  The reason why he speaks the word of God is because the fullness of the Spirit is upon Him so He speaks the pure word of God without adulterating it with the words of man. That person is Jesus. But when He wanted to leave the earth, He said to us: ... " as my Father hath sent me, even so send I you. " (John 20:21) How did God send Him? God sent him by anointing Him with the Holy spirit in full measure. Easy English Version puts our text this way...

THE WORD OF HIS POWER TEXT: Heb 1:3Amp He is the sole expression of the glory of God..upholding and maintaining and guiding and propelling the universe by His mighty Word of power... MESSAGE When you access the word of God what do you think you came in contact with? When you pick up the bible to receive divine revelation, when the word of God comes to you through this medium or any other anointed servant of God, what do you think you are relating with? Don't be decieved like the Jews of the days of Jesus. They looked at him and saw a lowly carpentar. Little did they know that they were conversing with their creator, the very reason why they breathe and the one whose unchanging nature is why they are not consumed. A moment with the Word of God is an intercourse with the one who set the planetary system in motion and dictated their paths. He makes the ocean roar, He called forth the lands from the sea and commanded all the aquatic creatures to come forth from the womb of the sea...

TOPIC: BE FILLED WITH THE HOLY SPIRIT TEXT: Psalm 44:1&3 1 We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what work thou didst in their days, in the times of old. 3 For they got not the land in possession by their own sword, neither did their own arm save them: but thy right hand, and thine arm, and the light of thy countenance, because thou hadst a favour unto them. MESSAGE Have you ever noticed that the larger percentage of the church as it is now seems very different from the one described in the book of Acts of the Apostles. Back then, they prayed and got result; a sermon won 3,000 souls; in fact souls were added to them daily (Acts 2:47). The miraculous was the norm. But today, anointing has been replaced with rhetorics and gimmicks; and sound doctrine with the doctrines of men. We read about the Acts of the early church and they seem like myth. In fact some people have thrown up their hands in frustration and said that the supernatural is not for...

TEXT : Romans 8:19-21 19  For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. 20  For the creature was made subject to vanity, not willingly, but by reason of him who hath subjected the same in hope, 21  Because the creature itself also shall be delivered from the bondage of corruption into the glorious liberty of the children of God. MESSAGE : Yesterday we learnt that God's children are the real agents of Change that the world is waiting for. If that is the case why is there so much ills despite the numerous churches and Christians we have around? It seems as if the more churches proliferate, so do evil, ills and corruption. Jesus did ministry for 3 and a half years. But for more than 2000 years now, his impact has not waned, rather, it is increasing. If actually Jesus prolonged His days in us, if actually he lives in us, why don't we seem to be making impact? Why should the world wait in va...

TEXT: Romans 8:19 For the earnest expectation of the creature waiteth for the manifestation of the sons of God. MESSAGE Look around you. You see decay right? Corruption everywhere, wickedness, evil and so on. In our country we have become so conscious of the decadence in the society that people began to cry for change. The party that took the wisdom of making their slogan "change" got the attention if the masses. People are so conscious of change but totally unconscious of the changer! They think one political leader will end corruption and put an end to decadence. But the Word of God tells us the truth. While men and even Christians look to political leaders to save the world, the Truth is that the world looks to us for salvation. All of creation is expecting you friend. They awaits your manifestation. Whenever darkness covers the earth, when things go bad, God's solution is the introduction of His sons. When God's man manifests, it cures the ills. In the beginn...